As we all know by now,
professionalizing your scholarship is essential to getting an
academic job; and professionalizing your teaching is also crucial in
depicting the kind of teacher you are, the kind of teacher you want
to be, and the kind of teacher a university or college wants to hire.
Below are several suggestions for ways to not only document your
teaching, but to also learn how to
talk about your teaching to
others, a fundamental skill
when interviewing for jobs, in particular.

Be Able to Talk About Your
Teaching like a Professional

What does this mean exactly? Here are
some suggestions:

Be able to offer a coherent
rationale for everything you do in the classroom.

Have a two minute statement about
what makes your teaching
yours,
and not someone else's.

Have a two minute statement on
the glories, pieties, and wonders of teaching.

Have concrete examples of
pedagogical things (exercises, lesson plans, etc.) you do that
you've developed, or better yet that
other
people do that you've
developed.

Know major current pedagogical
issues in your field. Read
The Chronicle of Higher
Education, among other
journals, to find out what people are worried about when it comes
to teaching. For example, in 2002, issues of assessment are really
big as higher education at state schools, in particular, comes
under scrutiny and must produce certain learning outcomes. When
you interview for a job, you'll want to be able to join a
conversation about the teaching issues most central to
them.

Seek Out Information About the
Effects of Your Teaching on Students

One of the best ways to do this is to
use tools that find out what's happening to your students, in
particular (as opposed to just assessing
your
performance). The Teaching Analysis Poll or TAP is a great example of
an assessment tool that probes student learning. Generally, just get
multiple kinds of assessment of your teaching
whenever
possible.Your ability to have an "open
classroom," one where you welcome observation and feedback, will
improve your teaching currently while simultaneously preparing you
for the public sphere of your professional life which might include
giving a teaching demonstration or delivering a paper. Having a TAP,
for instance, is just one more tool in your knapsack that you can
pull out and use at the appropriate time.

Class Visitations from professors
who can write you a "teaching" recommendation

Develop a Teaching
Portfolio

(Handouts on how to do this and a
workshop that walks you step-by-step through the process are
available from the UVA Teaching Resource Center)

Enough cannot be said about how much
developing a portfolio facilitates your thinking and talking about
your teaching, even if you never show it to anyone (which is
unlikely). It also prepares you for the tenure process where at some
schools teaching performance is more crucial than others.

Remember, be fanatical about saving
things. Also, when you use something in class, revise it the next day
in your teaching notes so that you remember what you did. Just as you
imagine your scholarly work contributing to a larger community,
imagine that your pedagogical philosophy and praxis do the
same.

Let Themed Writing Classes Work
for You

Of course your first goal when
selecting a theme, as with all things in your teaching, is seeking
out what's good for your students, and not what's good for you. But
you can serve your interests while serving theirs. Clearly, then, the
themed component of ENWR at UVA is not an excuse to just teach your
dissertation which would be a great disservice to your undergraduates
(both because of course content and your ability to translate that
material). Themed classes are a chance to experiment with areas of
your "job profile" you'd like to enhance. For example, say you begin
to look at the job list in
19th
century American literature, and you notice that it's really
important to have done some work with gender studies. So far, you
don't have a specialty in that area, so teach an ENWR on gender and
culture in the United States, or some variation. Not only is it a
provocative and successful theme (others have taught variations so
ask them), but on your CV, you can list this experience, and- this is
important- you can emphasize the theme of the writing class. Choosing
new themes after teaching them a few times gives you an opportunity
to expand your repertoire: don't miss that chance! If you'd like more
help on thinking about your theme in strategic ways, contact someone
in the writing program.